15.10.11

(our teammates Barry and Karla are traveling in the U.S. right now; I am watering Karla's lovely garden while she is away - - this is kind of a risk for Karla, since I have yet to prove myself as a true gardener; but - - don't worry Karla! so far so good!)

I ran into Manuel last week; Do you remember Manuel? he's our garbage guy.
I caught him sitting on the curb down the street pounding away at a faucet. was he fixing it? I asked. No, he was just separating the copper from the aluminum because he could get different prices for each one. Nice.

So I told him that Joshua and I had been talking, and that we wanted to invite him and his family over for dinner sometime so that they could give us their perspective on Mexico - - tell us what they love about their country, and tell us what things he has observed about our neighborhood.

Manuel seemed particularly uncomfortable with my dinner invite, so I quickly backpeddled.
"it's ok!"I told him "you don't need to come if you don't want to! . . . I know that we have only known each other for a little bit; maybe you feel uncomfortable coming over?"

"No, no!" he told me
"It's just that people of your class don't usually eat with people of my class!"

I told him that we don't follow those class rules.

Manuel, his wife, and his four daughters are coming over for dinner tomorrow
I'm super excited.

I am Naomi.

I live in Mexico city - where I eat tacos as often as I can, hunt for beauty in the chaos (because beauty IS here . . . I just have to work hard to see it), and thank God every single day that my little apartment has such big windows.